Joe Irace’s December Comments On COAH

Transcript from statement read at the Dec. 5, 2012 Oceanport Borough Council meeting by Councilman Joseph Irace:

Oceanport Councilman Joe Irace

Tonight we are being “asked” under court order, to approve an affordable housing plan for the Borough of Oceanport for COAH Round 2.  The entire debate on Affordable Housing is one that I have trouble understanding intellectually, socially and fiscally.  While we all embrace the idea of lower priced homes, where newly married couples and our aging population can remain in our town for now and years to come, I have a hard time accepting the fact that the Courts, and not our legislature, have the ability to mandate how many homes and the type of homes that a municipality must provide.  This is especially troublesome to me because the rest of the town bears the tax burden of this unfunded judicial mandate.

This COAH legislation and the resulting judicial decisions have been a social planning experiment gone awry from the very beginning.  The confusing and often contradictory laws and court rulings arising from Rounds 1 and 2 of COAH have led to the Borough being sued for lack of compliance and have cost our residents hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.  The entire system is broken and needs to be fixed.

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NJ Supreme Court Overturns Affordable Housing Rules, Puts COAH on Tight Deadline

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NJ.com hires Darryl Isherwood, editor of PolitickerNJ.com, as senior political reporter

NJ.com hires Darryl Isherwood, editor of PolitickerNJ.com, as senior political reporter (via NJ.com)

MORRISTOWN — NJ.com, New Jersey’s most popular news-and-information website, announced today that it has hired Darryl Isherwood, the editor of PolitickerNJ.com and State Street Wire, as its senior political reporter. “This is a hugely exciting hire…

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Red Bank or ‘Wal-Bank’?

By Sean DiSomma

In 2012, the Red Bank RiverCenter re-branded Red Bank as “A Cool Little Town.” After the Democrats get done with it, RiverCenter may want to consider renaming our beloved small town “Wal-Bank.”

As a person who is lucky enough to have spent time in over 40 different states of this great country, I am outraged by the “genericization” of some our greatest small towns. When Fredricksburg, Virginia looks like New Iberia, Louisiana, it takes away from the experience of living in or visiting one of these places. If Democrats get their way, Red Bank will become another one of these generic towns . . . or worse.

Can you imagine a day where after finishing up your McRib sandwich on the corner of Monmouth and Broad you take a nice leisurely stroll down the street to Payless to pick up some fresh “Buy One Get One Half Off” kicks? Don’t laugh because this is the Red Bank that the Zipprich, Horgan and Lee Council envision.

I can’t imagine ever getting to the point where I would want to grasp a fledgling political career so badly that I would support a generic big box that is contrary to the culture of our community, presents serious health hazards and furthers the genericization of our small town.

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N.J. Supreme Court to issue major affordable housing decision

N.J. Supreme Court to issue major affordable housing decision (via NJ.com)

Keith A. Muccilli/For The Star-Ledger TRENTON — The state Supreme Court will hand down a long-awaited decision today on how many affordable-housing units New Jersey’s towns must provide for their lowest-income residents. At issue, again, is the…

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To Live and Die In Asbury Park (Part Two)

By Ernesto Cullari (originally published in triCityNews)

There have been seventeen victims of shootings this year in Asbury Park and five murders. According to some reports we are on track to match violence levels not seen in 20 years. People on both sides of the train tracks are scared.

I’ve read many opinions about how to stop the violence among our youth in Asbury Park and in other cities, where poverty is an issue and most of the solutions focus on more government and more police intervention.

It isn’t government intervention or the threat of jail time that makes a person stop in the moment of anger and refrain from pulling a trigger. Laws don’t prevent kids from joining gangs. Government programs won’t stop a 14-year-old boy from engaging in unprotected premarital sex with a young girl his age and the government certainly won’t raise their child; The government doesn’t teach our youth about the value of human life; but parents do, good role models do too and the Bible does, as well.

Did Martin Luther King, Jr. quote from some government handbook handed down from Valerie Jarrett and Kathleen Sebelius when he faced down both the rising influence of the Black Panthers and social oppressors or did he quote from scripture? If we’re going to rely simply on more government programs, more police and new political initiatives to fix the rising tide of violence in our communities then we’ve failed before we’ve begun. If Christianity, shared in the public square, changed the world then its message certainly can help change the course of our societal problems now. To think otherwise is to ignore the last 2013 years of Western history.

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Trends Toward Greater Doctor Shortage Worry State Legislators

New Jersey policymakers looking to address a looming shortage of doctors in the state need to act quickly, as the problem appears to be getting worse and more quickly than predicted. More of the state’s medical residents are planning to leave the…

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Lonegan pokes fun at Booker with red carpet affair in Newark

Lonegan pokes fun at Booker with red carpet affair in Newark (via NJ.com)

NEWARK — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Lonegan glided up the red carpet, his wife at his side, and posed as the flash bulbs popped tonight. Then Lonegan, the former mayor of Bergen County’s Bogota, walked inside a Newark restaurant, into…

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RED BANK CHIEF STEVE MCCARTHY, DEAD AT 50

Chief Steve McCarthy at borough hall in November, 2011. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge) By JOHN T. WARD Red Bank Police Chief Steve McCarthy died Monday morning following an extended battle with cancer. He was 50 years old.McCarthy died at…

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N.J. legislators inching toward override of Christie’s gay marriage veto

N.J. legislators inching toward override of Christie’s gay marriage veto (via NJ.com)

TRENTON — Under the din of a bustling election season, there’s a quiet movement afoot to make gay marriage a reality in New Jersey by the end of the year. Advocates have been working to convince state lawmakers — including a number of Republicans…

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